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This is gonna sound cynical but I don't enjoy being "helpful" at work because it often comes back to bite me in the ass. I work in IT, and if you go the extra

by Zircom 5y ago

This is gonna sound cynical but I don't enjoy being "helpful" at work because it often comes back to bite me in the ass. I work in IT, and if you go the extra mile for a person one time they often expect that to be the norm from that point forward and may even tell other people about it who will then expect it to be the norm for them as well, and it just becomes extra work that's expected of you on top of your normal job duties, and if you complain or try to stop doing it you'll be seen as not a team player or lazy for trying to do less. Or if you agree to do a favor for a co-worker one time, and then they ask a second and third time, and they start asking more frequently until eventually they're just coming to you every single time and it ends with you basically doing part of their job for them. As you mentioned it can be helpful to do this because you do get those connections and influences with other people, you just have to decide if it's worth the effort to you personally to be doing what amounts the extra unpaid work to get those connections and influence.

hindsightbias 5y ago
I’ll move mountains for people as long as they’ve RTFM and have not demonstrated themselves to be idiots/leaches. Sadly, most knowledge today is google deep and people don’t even know what a manual is.
AndrewDucker 5y ago
It needs to be balanced - if something is documented then you can just point them at it. But people you've done favours for are more likely to do them for you too. And that's a major force multiplier when it comes to your own goals.
- Zircom 5y ago
  I totally agree but the people I'm talking about are not the kind of people that will return the favor, they're just slackers who are looking to do the least amount of work possible and offloading it onto you is just one of many tricks in their toolkit of avoiding doing actual work. People that will return the favor do exist but the amount of coworkers that will do something for me is vastly out-weighed by the aforementioned slackers. And the same thing about going out of your way to help out end users, it just ends up being expected of you and if the next time you say no they might raise a stink and get you into trouble, either for not following process the first time, or for causing a bad and inconsistent user experience by NOT helping them the second time. It's easier to just do what's expected of you and nothing more, nothing less.

by Zircom 5y ago

hindsightbias 5y ago

I’ll move mountains for people as long as they’ve RTFM and have not demonstrated themselves to be idiots/leaches. Sadly, most knowledge today is google deep and people don’t even know what a manual is.

AndrewDucker 5y ago

It needs to be balanced - if something is documented then you can just point them at it. But people you've done favours for are more likely to do them for you too. And that's a major force multiplier when it comes to your own goals.

Zircom 5y ago
I totally agree but the people I'm talking about are not the kind of people that will return the favor, they're just slackers who are looking to do the least amount of work possible and offloading it onto you is just one of many tricks in their toolkit of avoiding doing actual work. People that will return the favor do exist but the amount of coworkers that will do something for me is vastly out-weighed by the aforementioned slackers. And the same thing about going out of your way to help out end users, it just ends up being expected of you and if the next time you say no they might raise a stink and get you into trouble, either for not following process the first time, or for causing a bad and inconsistent user experience by NOT helping them the second time. It's easier to just do what's expected of you and nothing more, nothing less.